• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.141-153
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• 2023

The presented paper considers infill masonry walls' influence on the seismic reliability of precast concrete frames. The recent Bojnord earthquake on May 13th, 2017 in Iran (MW 5.4) illustrated that the infill masonry walls play a crucial role in the damage extent and life safety issues of inhabitants in the precast concrete buildings. The incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) approach was used to determine the fragility curves of the represented damaged precast frame. Then, by integrating site hazard and structural fragilities, the seismic reliability of the represented precast frame was evaluated in different damage limit states. Additionally, the static pushover analysis (SPA) approach was used to assess the seismic performance assessment of the precast frame. Bare and infilled frames were modeled as 2D frames employing the OpenSees software platform. The multi-strut macro-model method was employed for infill masonry simulation. Also, a relatively efficient and straightforward nonlinear model was used to simulate the nonlinear behavior of the precast beam-column joint. The outputs show that consideration of the masonry infilled wall effect in all spans of the structural frame leads to a decrease in the possibility of exceedance of specified damage limit states in the structures. In addition, variation of hazard curves for buildings with and without consideration of infilled walls leads to a decrease in the reliability of the building's frames with masonry infilled walls. Furthermore, the lack of infill walls in the first story significantly affects the precast concrete frame's seismic reliability and performance.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.489-499
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• 2024

Infill masonry walls are vulnerable to lateral loads, including seismic, wind, and concentrated push loads. Various strengthening metal fittings have been proposed to improve lateral load resistance, particularly against seismic loads. This study introduces the use of post-compressed wedges as a novel reinforcement method for infill masonry walls to enhance lateral load resistance. The resistance of the infill masonry wall against lateral-concentrated push loads was assessed using an out-of-plane push-over test on specimens sized 2,300×2,410×190 mm³. The presence or absence of wedges and wedge spacing were set as variables. The push-over test results showed that both the unreinforced specimen and the specimen reinforced with 300 mm spaced wedges toppled, while the specimen reinforced with 100 mm spaced wedges remained upright. Peak loads were measured to be 0.74, 29.77, and 5.88 kN for unreinforced specimens and specimens reinforced with 100 mm and 300 mm spaced wedges, respectively. Notably, a tighter reinforcement spacing yielded a similar strength, as expected, which was attributed to the increased friction force between the masonry wall and steel frame. The W-series specimens exhibited a trend comparable to that of the displacement ductility ratio. Overall, the findings validate that post-compressed wedges improve the out-of-plane strength of infill masonry walls.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.177-196
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• 2011

An economic, structurally effective and practically applicable strengthening technique was developed for reinforced concrete (RC) framed buildings. The idea of the technique is to convert the existing hollow brick infill wall into a load carrying system acting as a cast-in-place RC infill wall by bonding relatively thin high strength precast concrete PC panels to the plastered hollow brick infill. For this purpose, a total of eight one-third scale, one bay, one story frames were tested under reversed-cyclic lateral loads. Test frames were designed and constructed with common deficiencies observed in practice. Four different panel types were used for strengthening. Test results showed that both strength and stiffness of the frames were significantly improved by the introduction of PC panels. Experimental results were compared with the analytical approaches suggested by the authors.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.553-570
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• 2013

Using of masonry infill as partitions, in flat slab frame buildings is a common practice in many parts of the world. The infill is, generally, not considered in the design and the buildings are designed as bare frames. More of fundamental information in the effect of masomary infill on the seismic performance of RC building frames is in great demand for structural engineers. Therefore the main aim of this research is to evaluate the seismic performance of such buildings without (bare frame) and with various systems of the masonary infill. For this purpose, thirteen three dimensional models are chosen and analyzed by SAP2000 program. In this study the stress strain relation model proposed by Crisafulli for the hysteric behaviour of masonary subjected to cyclic loading is used. The results show that the nonstructural masonary infill can impart significant increase global strength and stiffness of such building frames and can enhance the seismic behaviour of flat slab frame building to large extent depending on infill wall system. As a result great deal of insight has been obtained on seismic response of such flat slab buildings which enable the structural engineer to determine the optimum position of infill wall between the columns.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.405-413
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• 2010

A hybrid post and beam shear wall system with structural insulation panel (SIP) infill was developed as a part of a green home 'Han-green' project through post and beam construction for contemporary life style. This project is on-going at the Korea Forest Research Institute to develop a new building system which improves Korean traditional wet-type building system and stimulates industrialized wood construction practice with pre-cut system. Compared to the traditional wet-type infill wall components, the hybrid wall system has benefits, such as, higher structural capacity, better thermal insulation performance, and shorter construction term due to the dry-type construction. To build up the hybrid wall system, in previous, SIP infill wall components can be manufactured at factory, and then inserted and nailed with helically threaded nails into the post and beam members at site. Shear performance of the hybrid wall system was evaluated through horizontal shear tests. The SIP hybrid wall system showed higher maximum shear strength, initial stiffness, ductility, yield strength, specified strength, and the specified allowable strength than those of post and beam with light-frame wall system. In addition to this, the hybrid wall system can provide speedy construction and structural and functional advantages including energy efficiency in the building system.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.333-347
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• 2017

Masonry infill walls are unavoidable parts of any building to create a separation between internal space and external environment. In general, there are some prevalent openings in the infill wall due to functional needs, architectural considerations or aesthetic concerns. In current design practice, the strength and stiffness contribution of infill walls is not considered. However, the presence of infill walls may decisively influence the seismic response of structures subjected to earthquake loads and cause a different behavior from that predicted for a bare frame. Furthermore, partial openings in the masonry infill wall are significant parameter affecting the seismic behavior of infilled frames thereby decreasing the lateral stiffness and strength. The possible effects of openings in the infill wall on seismic behavior of RC frames is analytically studied by means of pushover analysis of several bare, partially and fully infilled frames having different bay and story numbers. The stiffness loss due to partial opening is introduced by the stiffness reduction factors which are developed from finite element analysis of frames considering frame-infill interaction. Pushover curves of frames are plotted and the maximum base shear forces, the yield displacement, the yield base shear force coefficient, the displacement demand, interstory drift ratios and the distribution of story shear forces are determined. The comparison of parameters both in terms of seismic demand and capacity indicates that partial openings decisively influences the nonlinear behavior of RC frames and cause a different behavior from that predicted for a bare frame or fully infilled frame.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.265-277
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• 2019

Framed masonry wall structures represent a typical high-rise structural system that are also seismically vulnerable. During ground motions, they are excited in both in-plane and out-of-plane terms. The interaction between the frame and the infill during ground motion is a highly investigated phenomenon in the field of seismic engineering. This paper presents a numerical investigation of two distinct static out-of-plane loading methods for framed masonry wall models. The first and most common method is uniformly loaded infill. The load is generally induced by the airbag. The other method is similar to in-plane push-over method, involves loading of the frame directly, not the infill. Consequently, different openings with the same areas and various placements were examined. The numerical model is based on calibrated in-plane bare frame models and on calibrated wall models subjected to OoP bending. Both methods produced widely divergent results in terms of load bearing capabilities, failure modes, damage states etc. Summarily, uniform load on the panel causes more damage to the infill than to the frame; openings do influence structures behavior; three hinged arching action is developed; and greater resistance and deformations are obtained in comparison to the frame loading method. Loading the frame causes the infill to bear significantly greater damage than the infill; infill and openings only influence the behavior after reaching the peak load; infill does not influence initial stiffness; models with opening fail at same inter-storey drift ratio as the bare frame model.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.137-147
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• 2022

This study investigated the seismic performance of reinforced concrete (RC) wall-slab frames with masonry infills. Four RC wall-slab frames with or without masonry infill were tested under cyclic loading. The RC frames were composed of in-plane and out-of-plane walls and top and bottom slabs. For masonry infill walls, cement bricks were stacked applying mortar paste only at the bed joints, and, at the top, a gap of 50 mm was intentionally left between the masonry wall and top RC slab. Both sides of the masonry walls were finished by applying ordinary or fiber-reinforced mortars. The tests showed that despite the gap on top of the masonry walls, the strength and stiffness of the infilled frames were significantly increased and were different depending on the direction of loading and the finishing mortars. During repeated loading, the masonry walls underwent horizontal and diagonal cracking and corner crushing/spalling, showing a rocking mode inside the RC wall-slab frame. Interestingly, this rocking mode delayed loss of strength, and as a result, the ductility of the infilled frames increased to the same level as the bare frame. The interaction of masonry infill and adjacent RC walls, depending on the direction of loading, was further investigated based on test observations.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.861-871
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• 2021

This study aims at investigating the hysteretic performance of a novel composite wall panel fabricated by infilling aerated concrete blocks into a novel light-steel frame used for low-rise residential buildings. The novel light-steel frame is consisted of two thin-wall rectangular hollow section columns and a truss-beam assembled using patented U-shape connectors. Two bare light-steel frames and two composite wall panels have been tested to failure under horizontal cyclic loading. Hysteretic curves, lateral resistance and stiffness of four specimens have been investigated and analyzed. Based on the testing results, it is found that the masonry infill can significantly increase the lateral resistance and stiffness of the novel light-steel frame, about 2.3~3 and 21.2~31.5 times, respectively. Failure mode of the light-steel frame is local yielding of the column. For the composite wall panel, firstly, masonry infill is crushed, subsequently, local yielding may occur at the column if loading continues. Hysteretic curve of the composite wall panel obtained is not plump, implying a poor energy dissipation capacity. However, the light-steel frame of the composite wall panel can dissipate more energy after the masonry infill is crushed. Therefore, the composite wall panel has a much higher energy dissipation capacity compared to the bare light-steel frame.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.279-289
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• 2018

Shear walls are one of the important structural elements for bearing loads imposed on buildings due to winds and earthquakes. Composite shear walls with high lateral resistance, and high energy dissipation capacity are considered as a lateral load system in such buildings. In this paper, a composite shear wall consisting of steel faceplates, infill concrete and tie bars which tied steel faceplates together, and concrete filled steel tubular (CFST) as boundary columns, was modeled numerically. Test results were compared with the existing experimental results in order to validate the proposed numerical model. Then, the effects of some parameters on the behavior of the composite shear wall were studied; so, the diameter and spacing of tie bars, thickness and compressive strength of infill concrete, thickness of steel faceplates, and the effect of strengthening the bottom region of the wall were considered. The seismic behavior of the modeled composite shear wall was evaluated in terms of stiffness, ductility, lateral strength, and energy dissipation capacity. The results of the study showed that the diameter of tie bars had a trivial effect on the performance of the composite shear wall, but increasing the tie bars spacing decreased ductility. Studying the effect of infill concrete thickness, concrete compressive strength, and thickness of steel faceplates also showed that the main role of infill concrete was to prevent buckling of steel faceplates. Also, by strengthening the bottom region of the wall, as long as the strengthened part did not provide a support performance for the upper part, the behavior of the composite shear wall was improved; otherwise, ductility of the wall could be reduced severely.